Close your eyes and imagine the “typical” hybrid. Now open them and take in the amazing splendor of the Chevy Corvette ZR1X. It has 12 times the horsepower of a Toyota Prius, in case you happened to wonder. But it also has 50 percent more horsepower than the already astoundingly powerful, $300,000 Mustang GTD. And, no, that’s not because the Ford’s not a hybrid! Herewith, in all its glory, are the five key facts you definitely want to know more about Chevy’s most glorious, most insane creation, ever. Yes, we continue below the punch-list with the deets about each:
- It’s All-Wheel Drive — But it’s not remotely “normal”.
- The ZR1X has the craziest turbocharging of any production car.
- The brakes are ridiculous.
- Also, this Corvette has brakes we want for EVs!
- There are even lessons for EREV powertrains—that don’t cost $500,000.
We could easily add 10 more items to this list, by the way, but we’ll just geek out with these four here. Oh, and no, we don’t yet have an on-sale date or the MSRP.
The Craziest All-Wheel Drive On Earth
Chevy now has the two most powerful cars of any American manufacturer. Arguably, they now have the two most high-performance cars for the money, too, even if that money is north of $170,000—to start. That’s because the twin-turbocharged V-8 ZR1, which boasts 1,064 horsepower, is still a relative bargain compared to comparable options from Ferrari. And we’ll bet the ZR1X, almost no matter what it costs, will still be cheaper-for-the-performance than, say, an equivalent McLaren.
Meanwhile, the news here is about the 1,250-horsepower ZR1X, which gets its additional mojo from a 186-horsepower electric motor over the front axle. That’s 20 more horsepower than the motor produces in the Corvette E-Ray hybrid.
What’s astonishing is that the Corvette achieves all-wheel drive without any physical connection between the gas and electric powertrains. The front motor is powered by a battery system that forms a spine under the center of the ZR1X, and in this car, vs. the E-Ray, Chevy engineers have built a hybrid system that’s endured for 24 hours of driving, while never fully discharging the battery. In other words, unlike some hybrid systems that wind up lugging the dead weight of a motor that cannot achieve full power, this system is designed to deliver all-wheel drive whenever it’s needed, especially to enable the car to stick to the track and gun the ZR1X out of turns. The electric motor can deliver torque at up to 160 MPH.
Turbocharging Turbocharging!
No, we’re not stuttering. Corvette has “turbocharged” turbocharging on the ZR1X. Its twin turbochargers work off an idea Chevy calls a “maniturbo” exhaust design that combines the manifold and turbocharger. By placing the turbos directly over the exhaust valves, they decrease lag. They also mechanically goose the turbos into motion even when you lift the throttle, so they’re ready to re-spool more rapidly, again to delay the typical lag that is the downfall of this kind of forced-air breathing. Maybe they should call it supercharged turbocharging?
Just Stop It!
If you’re going to build a car that will hit the quarter-mile in under nine seconds, hurtling like a missile at 150 MPH, you’d better be able to slow it down. This car just happens to feature 10-piston front, and six-piston rear calipers with 16.5-inch front and rear rotors. Soak that in for a second. Those brakes are larger than some stock wheels on cars.
This most robust-ever braking package on any Corvette, code-named J59, with carbon-ceramic rotors, FYI, was designed for maximum heat durability and response. And, you know, just because we’re talking about a hypercar, to put that in perspective, they say they saw drivers experience 1.9gs of deceleration during testing. That’s not exactly Formula 1 G-forces—and thank goodness, because you haven’t trained for five-plus Gs! But it’s still extraordinary.
Torque Vectoring We Should Have on EVs
The Corvette team developed torque-vectoring braking via the regenerative system used for the ZR1X’s battery system. The idea is that if you’re using regen already to recharge the battery, you can also “vector” that force between the two front wheels, which enables both control and also more stable cornering. Torque vectoring is nothing new, but most EVs don’t differentiate between the inside and outside wheel when applying regen through a corner—but they should. Often we beef that tech innovations from the track don’t make it to production. The ZR1X is still, nominally, a production car. So, what about getting this braking setup to the Blazer EV? The next Chevy Bolt?
Could An EREV Feature The ZR1X’s Programming?
An extended-range EV, or EREV, will become a different kind of hybrid that, we’d guess, will find a reasonable following. Scout is expected to lean on EREVs. Stellantis is supposedly planning this for Jeep. Unlike traditional hybrids, or bonkers ones like the ZR1X, EREVs engage their gas powerplants to drive their electric motors. But there’s a clever system in the ZR1X, called Charge+, that metes out the power from the battery to the electric motor so that it’s in sync with the amount of fuel and the rate of consumption from the gas engine.
This is designed precisely around track days, not, oh, rock crawling in your Scout, but you can well imagine powertrain engineers studying this model because it makes perfect sense. How do you get the maximum “go” from all propulsion systems with the maximum range, always based on a long-ish snapshot of current driving style? If Corvette can figure it out for their hybrid system, why not for other powertrains?
TopSpeed’s Take
This is the ultimate American hypercar. But it’s also foreshadowing both Ford and GM getting into Formula 1. Both are pushing their production cars to astonishing limits, and while the racing realm of F1 is its own beast, there’s zero question they want to learn as much as possible from the track in every form.
We’d even argue that, unlike other brands involved in racing, both GM and Ford have consistently sent more learnings back to the street. That’s arguably easier for Ferrari or Aston Martin, where “street” and track are much tighter. But you can easily see innovations from the ZR1X trickling down its brilliance to a $70,000 Corvette, too. All of which should make any red-blooded American thrilled that the ZR1X exists.
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